Does Skipping or Repeating a Grade Affect Self-Assessed Intelligence?

In the United States, 1.5% of all children repeated a grade in 2010 and grade skipping has come under criticism. When examining the impact of skipping or repeating, the economics literature presents contradictory results often based on flawed methodology. I utilize self-assessed intelligence data, and a strong set of covariates, from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Heath to determine whether grade skipping or grade retention have an impact on school age students. Self-assessed intelligence may be free of some of the problems present in the outcome variables used in previous studies, such as academic performance. I find that grade skipping has a significant negative effect on self-assessed intellegence, while the results on grade skipping are insignificant. Consequently, school administrators may need to reevaluate their current policies